Stratford East

In 2006, Stratford East staged a smash hit musical adptation of the 1972 reggae film classic The Harder they Come. And in 2025 it’s doing it again, this time the UK premire of a completely different version with a book by the great US playwright Suzan Lori-Parks. The songs, of course, are the Jimmy Cliff originals, and the story cleaves to that of Perry Henzell’s movie. It follows young hero Ivan, who arrives in Kingston, Jamaica determined to make it as a reggae star and who becomes radically disillusioned with the corrupt music business. Matthew Xia directs.

The 2025 Stratford East panto is, of course, a spin on the old classic Mother Goose: exactly how different a spin is TBC, but certainly it’s promising that this year’s creative team includes musical comedian Vikki Stone, who was a mainstay of the Lyric Hammersmith’s reliably irreverent panto for a fair few years. She teams up with co-writer/director Tonderai Munyevu – who co-created the Lyric’s 2023 Cinderella with her – for Mama Goose, which stars Charlie Cameron as AI Jill, Duane Gooden as Mama Goose, Mya Fox-Scott as BFF (The Bougie Fierce Fairy), Jerome Lincoln as Katy Perry/Ensemble, Ellie Seaton as WTF (The Wholesome Thoughtful Fairy), Grace Venus as the Tax Man/Ensemble, Che Walker as Gary the Goose, and Marcellus Whyte as Jack Goose. Music is by Robert Hyman, who has been doing the honours for the Stratford panto since the Stone Age.